Google has updated Chrome web browser to version 89, to introduce several user-facing enhancements and more.
For starters, Chrome 89 has a modernized page for selecting profiles "when Chrome opens." The picker is also available in the dropdown menu that appears after tapping users' avatar. The feature allows users to customize their Google Chrome profiles within the browser using colors and different backgrounds.
This should make recognizing and switching between different profiles a lot easier.
Chrome 89 also added a reading list that can be viewed by clicking the star icon.
The feature is placed where users would expect the most, which is where they normally see the bookmark options. There, users should see the 'add to reading list' option that allows them to add a page to a specific folder in the Bookmarks location.
Users can also sort the items they've read and those you still want to, and delete when finished.
The quick view also allows users to easily discern which pages they're still interested in reading.
Chrome 89 also beings some features that have been in development for a long time, such as native web sharing on desktop, which allows users to share website links through a native sharing menu, just like how users can do on Chrome for Android.
If a website supports the web sharing feature, users can simple click on the Share button on the website to open a native sharing menu that will show all the apps installed on the users' device. This allows users to not only share website links with social media platforms integrated on the website, but also with any app on their device that supports it.
Chrome 89 also brings support for WebHID, an API that helps make some controllers, like keyboards, VR controls, gamepads and joysticks, to work more smoothly with the web browser.
It should be noted that Chrome 89 has Google's work-in-progress Privacy Sandbox.
Read: Embracing A Cookies-Less Future, Google Cleverly Values Privacy, And Its Business
Google said that the feature will help in sustaining existing advertising model without having to track users on an individual level.
Additionally, Chrome 89 also brings Web NFC that allows websites to read and write NFC tags on supported Android devices.
And as for the redesigned Discover feed, Chrome 89 separates the sections by dividers, and not by cards.
Besides that, and as always, Google said that it has improved the stability and the performance of the browser, additions to DevTools, as well as some goodies for developers.
Of course, with all the new additions to Chrome 89, this brings a few removals as well.
For example, Chrome 89 stops supporting the older x86 processors.
To continue supporting Chrome 89, devices will be required to meet Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3) at the very least, which should cover devices made after 2005.
Google Chrome 89 stable version has been made available for all users on Windows, Mac, Android and also Linux, the company has announced.
It should be noted that Google has just released Chrome 88 a week before this, marking the release of the Manifest V3 extension API, changes to password management, and the official death of Adobe Flash support.